What McDonald's Did For This 6-Year-Old With Autism Will Warm Your Heart

Chain restaurants often give away free food to promote their brand, celebrate a food holiday, or to get you to buy something else, too. But one McDonald's gifted a free year of fries for one of the most heart-warming reasons we've heard in a while.

After six-year-old E.J. Paterson, who has autism, was made to feel unwelcome at a nearby Golden Corral restaurant, the owner of the Rocky Mount, NC McDonald's location decided to take action and offer the little boy free French fries for a year. "I just want to reward our fans and make his day, make him happy," franchise owner Matt Traub told ABC.

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Paterson's mom, Latonya Whitaker, said that their experience at the famous buffet chain was disheartening. After explaining her son's dietary needs—texture plays a big role in foods he willingly eats—and attempting to bring in fries from Mickey D's, the Golden Corral staff was dismissive.

Traub got wind of the story after Golden Corral issued a statement that read: "We are aware of an unfortunate misunderstanding between one of our managers and a guest who has a child with autism spectrum disorder. While we typically do not allow guests to bring in food from other restaurants, we always strive to be sensitive to our guests' needs and supportive of all members of the Rocky Mount community. Indeed, in this case, once we learned the guest's child had autism spectrum order and would only eat certain foods, we waived the policy, but the guest chose to leave. We certainly did not mean to upset our guest. We welcome all guests with special needs and are committed to ensuring our staff is sensitive to the needs of all of our guests. We have reached out to the mother and apologized for this misunderstanding. We invite her and her family to return, as our guests, to dine with us again."

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And when Whitaker got the free fry offer for her son from McD's, she was shocked. "I started to cry," she said. "It was a beautiful moment. For them to actually care and understand and to help me, that's a blessing. Everybody is not so understanding. People don't go out of their way to help other people."